The Cheviot is a variety of sheep, taking their name from the well-known Border mountain range, noted for their large carcass and valuable wool, which qualities, combined with a hardiness second only to that of the black-faced breed, constitute them one of the most valuable race of mountain sheep in the kingdom. Research Cheviot Sheep
Coopworth are a breed of sheep imported to Australia in 1976, after being developed in New Zealand in the 1950s from a cross of Border Leicester and Romney. Coopworths have been selected on visual criteria, wool quality, frame and carcass attributes, and measured performance, including fertility and lamb survival, growth rate to weaning, growth rate to yearling stage, leanness, growth and fleece production of 30-35 micron wool. This selection program has produced an efficient, dual-purpose sheep ideally suited to most environments in Australia. It is easy to care for and produces high milk yields for lamb production. Coopworths are performing well in Australia from the hot country of Riverina of New South Wales and Western Australia, to the wet, cold country of Victoria and Tasmania. Research Coopworth
The Hampshire Hog is an old black and white breed of pig. They are of a large size, and admired for their prolificacy, hardy vigour, foraging ability and outstanding carcass qualities. Research Hampshire Hog
The Jacob is a British breed of sheep. Slight of build, with the narrow, lean carcass typical of some of the ancient British breeds, they are immediately noticeable due to their black and white fleeces and prominent horns. Both males and females are horned, sporting two, four and occasionally six horns. Most striking to many people are four-horned rams with two vertical centre horns as much as two feet long, and two side horns curling down along the side of the head. Two-horned rams develop the more familiar classic double curl. Horns on the ewe are always shorter and more delicate than the rams' horns.
The Jacob fleece, which is properly described as white with black spots, is prized by hand spinners and weavers. The white and the black wool, which may fade at the tips to dark brown, may be blended to various shades of greys. The wool is of medium grade, and interestingly, the black wool, which grows out of black skin, frequently is shorter than the white wool, which grows from white skin. Ideally, the animal should be 40% black and 60% white, with certain characteristic patterns. The legs should be predominantly white, with black hooves and black knees and hocks desirable. The desired Jacob face is frequently referred to as 'badger faced' , with black cheeks and muzzle, but a white blaze down the front of the face. The nose should be black as well as the horns and ears.
In Norse mythology, Ve was a son of Bor and Bestla. Ve Killed the giantYmir and created the world out of its carcass along with his brothers. He gave the first humans feeling, appearance, and speech. Research Ve
In Norse mythology, Vili was a son of Bor and Bestla and a brother of Odin and Ve. Together with Odin and Ve, he killed the giantYmir, created the cosmos out of Ymir's carcass and made the first man and woman. He gave the humans thought and motion. Research Vili
A carcass was an iron case, with several apertures, filled with combustible materials, which was fired from a mortar or howitzer and intended to set fire to defences or ships, an early form of incendiary round. Research Carcass
Breeding is the art of improving races or breeds of domestic animals, or modifying them in certain directions, by continuous attention to their pairing, in conjunction with a similar attention to their feeding and general treatment.
Animals (and plants no less) show great susceptibility of modification under systematic cultivation; and there can be no doubt that by such cultivation the sum of desirable qualities in particular races has been greatly increased, and that in two ways. Individual specimens are produced possessing more good qualities than can be found in any one specimen of the original stock; and from the same stock many varieties are taken characterized by different perfections, the germs of all of which may have been in the original stock but could not have been simultaneously developed in a single specimen. But when an effort is made to develop rapidly, or to its extreme limit, any particular quality, it is always made at the expense of some other quality, or of other qualities generally, by which the intrinsic value of the result is necessarily affected. High speed in horses, for example, is only attained at the expense of a sacrifice of strength and power of endurance.
So the celebrated merinosheep are the result of a system of breeding which reduces the general size and vigour of the animal, and diminishes the value of the carcass. Much care and judgment, therefore, are needed in breeding, not only in order to produce a particular effect, but also to produce it with the least sacrifice of other qualities.
Breeding, as a means of improving domestic animals, has been practised more or less systematically wherever any attention has been paid to the care of live stock, and nowhere have more satisfactory results been obtained than in Britain. One of the earliest improvers in Britain was Robert Bakewell, of Dishley, in Leicestershire, who commenced his experiments about 1745, and was very successful, especially with sheep, the celebrated Dishley breed of Leicestershiresheep having since maintained a high reputation. Quantity of meat, smallness of bone, lightness of offal; in cows, yield and quality of milk, in sheep, weight of fleece and fineness of wool, have all been studied with remarkable effects by modern breeders. Research Breeding
Canard a la Presse is a French dish of duck, roasted for just twenty-five minutes, the breast of which is carved off - still very rare - and the carcass then chopped up and pressed, the juices and blood being added to reduced red wine and port which makes a sauce in which the duck breast is warmed before being served. The dish was invented around 1900 by a French restaurateur and is the speciality of the Tour d'Argent restaurant in Paris where it was invented. Research Canard a la Presse
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Cheviot Sheep
